Etsy Inc. signed a five-year deal to make Google its primary cloud provider as the online marketplace works to shed its do-it-yourself approach to technology and rely more on third-party service providers.

The company has already begun moving some of its applications and employees have begun training on Google Cloud Platform infrastructure, Chief Technology Officer Mike Fisher said in an interview. The migration is expected to take about two years, and making the transition cost-neutral “is a big initiative for us,” he said.

Since its founding in 2005, Brooklyn-based Etsy has owned and operated its own infrastructure, using multiple colocation centers around the globe. When Mr. Fisher joined the company in August, one of his first jobs was to analyze whether it made sense to be in that business. Deciding that the answer was no, the company spent the following months outlining project requirements and testing cloud providers.

Mike Fisher, Etsy's chief technology officer
Photo:
ETSY INC

Mr. Fisher declined to name the other cloud providers it considered, but said each platform was part of a “very diligent bake-off.” The contest included a decision matrix that ranked each provider’s performance against 200 factors, ranging from security to ease of use.

One reason Etsy ultimately settled on Google was its expertise in machine learning, Mr. Fisher said. He also liked the fact that customers were able to access tools that Google has been using internally for years.

After a tumultuous 2017 that included the ouster of its CEO, hundreds of job cuts and harsh criticism from investors, Etsy is working to decrease its reliance on in-house tech projects that don’t provide strategic value.

“It’s a big change from doing everything ourselves into let’s trust third parties to take and handle really large, very important aspects of our service,” Mr. Fisher said.

His comments echo those of CEO Josh Silverman, who took the top spot at Etsy this May and has focused on reviving the company’s core marketplace. “We have invested too much in building our own version of things that already exist in the market,” he said at the time.

Those comments followed criticism of Etsy’s “code as craft” approach to technology and pressure from investors to cut spending. In May, Black-and-White Capital LP released a letter criticizing the company for its “horrendous search functionality” and “historical pattern of ill-advised spending.”

When he joined the company, Mr. Fisher said he would focus on improving search capabilities and scaling Etsy’s IT infrastructure. He said machine learning would be a focus area for Etsy as it works to improve its search capabilities and create more personalized experiences across its platform.